Low profile embossed-debossed printing on a closure



Dec. 3, 1968 e. L. GOODHUE LOW PROFILE EMBOSSED'DEBOSSED PRINTING ON A CLOSURE Filed Feb.

INVENTOR GEORGE L- GOODHUE M W R3. PM 1 ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,413,743 LOW PROFILE EMBOSSED-DEBOSSED PRINTING ON A CLOSURE George L. Goodhue, Lancaster, Pa., assignor to Armstrong Cork Company, Lancaster, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Feb. 8, 1967, Ser. No. 614,601 2 Claims. (Cl. 40311) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A closure having low profile printing formed by embossing the letters and debossing the area surrounding the letters. The letters forming the printing on the closure are embossed or raised only a slight distance above the plane of the background. To give the letters the appearance of a greater height a debossing channel is placed around the periphery of the letters. The letters now give an apperance of having a substantial height whereas the letters are only raised a slight distance above the plane of the background.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention The invention is directed to a technique for providing advertising material on the top of a molded plastic closure.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART Many prior art closures are formed from metal and have a painted-on advertising on the top of the closure. The present trend is towards the use of a molded plastic closure in lieu of the metal closures. The molded closures are readily adapted to have the advertising material formed on the top of the closure during the molding operation. Such an operation will eliminate the need to paint on the advertising information. The molded closures generally use a high embossed printing to set forth the advertising material. However, the normal embossed advertising does not lend itself readily to price marking. That is, the raised lettering makes it difficult for the store clerk to easily place a readable price on the top of the closure.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 7 This invention is directed towards a molded closure with advertising material or indicia produced by a low profile embossing-debossing technique. The embossed symbols (letters, characters or designs) of the advertising indicia are only raised .005.008" above the surface of the background. Debossing channels placed around the periphery of the symbols extend approximately .005" .010 below the surface of the background. This results in a low profile symbol with the appearance of a depth of accent accomplished by the debossing channel outlining the symbol.

Now when the store clerk stamps the price on the closure top it is possible to form a legible price marking. The plane of the background and the plane of the raised or embossed letters or symbols are within .005.008 of each other and this small difference still permits the price marking tool to form a readable price marking. The resiliency of the marking tool is sufficient that this minor difference in height will not prevent deforming of the legible price marking. The debossing channels are not of a sufiicient width to provide a noticeable affect on a price marking and the depth of the debossing channel is sufiicient to generate the impression that the embossed letters are higher than their actual measurement. Consequently, the low profile embossing-debossing tech- 3,413,743 Patented Dec. 3, 1968 "ice BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURE 1 is a top view of a closure with printing thereon; and

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a portion of FIGURE 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The closure 10 is formed from conventional plastics and is produced by a molding technique or techniques conventional in the art. The letters of the advertising material are placed on the upper surface of the closure top 12. The closure is formed with the conventional skirt structure 14 and container fastening means 16.

The upper surface 18 of the closure forms the background for the letters 20 constituting the advertising material. The background 18 is in substantially a single plane. The upper surface of the embossed letters 20 are in substantially the same plane and this plane is spaced from the plane of the background by a distance of .005"- .008. This low profile embossing by itself would not produce an advertising with any noticeable accent. A debossing groove 22 is placed around the periphery of the letters forming the advertising material. Thisgroove is from .O05"-.O10" in depth below the plane of the background. These channels then give to the letters an accent that makes the letters appear to be higher than their actual height dimension. FIGURE 2 shows the relative relationship of the plane of the letters, the plane of the background and the debossing grooves.

As is conventional in most grocery stores, a carton of packaged goods is opened at the top and the store clerk stamps on the closures for the goods the selling price of the goods. A price marking instrument coming down on the top of the closure shown in FIGURE 2, if it landed in the background area, would readily place a legible price marking. If the price marking tool came down partially on an embossed letter and partially over a background area, the minor height dilference between the plane of the top of the letters and the plane of the background will be compensated for by the inherent resiliency of the price marking tool so that a legible price marking will be placed partly on the letter and partly on the background area. However, if the closure advertising were made by only the conventional embossing technique to secure adequate accent, the plane of the tops ofathe letters would be a substatnial distance above the plane of the background. The price marking tool would then only leave its marking on the raised areas or at best provide a price marking with a substantial gap between the printing on the raised area and whatever printing may occur on the background area.

While one preferred embodiment of the invention has been described, it is to be understood that various changes, omissions, or additions may be made within the scope of the invetnion as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A closure for packaged goods with indicia thereon comprising a closure top having means to fasten the closure to packaged goods, the upper surface of the closure top being formed with indicia thereon, said indicia being raised only slightly above the upper surface of the closure top, a narrow debossing channel being placed around the periphery of the indicia to give it an appearance of substantial height, the raised indicia and peripheral channel constituting means to give the appearance of a high embossed character while in reality providing only a 10W profile character which may be readily subjected to legible price marking.

2. The closure of claim 1 wherein the indicia is formed by using embossed symbols which have their tops in a plane .005.008" above the plane of the background which is the upper surface of the closure top, said debossin-g channels are .005".010" in depth and surround the periphery of the symbols to give the letters their 1 appearance of substantial height.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 767,060 8/ 1904 Hotchner 40136 2,620,939 12/ 1952 Weisgerber. 2,842,884 7/ 1958 Stevensen 40--136 XR 2,996,822 8/1961 Souza 40l36 3,198,688 8/1965 Yoder.

EUGENE R. CAPOZIO, Primary Examiner.

WILLIAM H. GRIEB, Assistant Examiner. 

